IRVINE, CALIFORNIA (Dec 13, 2013) – Oculus VR, Inc., creators of the highly anticipated Oculus Rift, announced today that it has raised $75 million in Series B funding to finalize development of its virtual reality platform and ecosystem. Andreessen Horowitz led the round, which also included significant additional investment from the Series A investors Spark Capital, Matrix Partners and Formation 8.

Founded in 2009 by angel investors Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz is world renowned for supporting the growth of emerging technology companies that change the world, including Facebook, Airbnb, Jawbone, Twitter and Skype. As part of the round, Marc Andreessen and Chris Dixon will join Oculus VR’s board of directors.

“Over the past 16 months, we’ve grown from a startup to a company whose technology is poised to change the way we play, work and communicate,” said Brendan Iribe, CEO of Oculus VR. “40,000 developers and enthusiasts, as well as a number of great partners, have joined our cause and helped us bring the seemingly impossible to life. This additional infusion of capital, as well as the leadership and experience of Marc and Chris, will help us take the final steps toward our ultimate goal: making virtual reality something consumers everywhere can enjoy.”

“We believe Oculus will not only alter the gaming landscape but will redefine fundamental human experiences in areas like film, education, architecture, and design. Oculus is at the tip of the iceberg of its potential, and we’re incredibly excited to help them change the world,” said Marc Andreessen, co-founder of Andreessen Horowitz.

Oculus VR previously raised $16 million in Series A and $2.4 million through its Kickstarter campaign – almost 10 times its fundraising goal. The company has sold more than 40,000 Oculus Rift development kits to developers that are actively supporting the headset.

“The games industry is well past the point where more pixels, texels, flops, and frames displayed on the same fixed screens are really changing the experiences that players get. What will revolutionize gaming is putting the gamer inside the game. That is our goal at Oculus, and this Series B will help us get there,” said John Carmack, CTO of Oculus VR.

The Oculus Rift is a virtual reality headset that allows users to step inside virtual worlds. It provides an immersive, stereoscopic 3D experience with a huge field of view — 110 degrees diagonally — that overcomes many of the challenges that virtual reality faced in the past.

Oculus is currently recruiting world-class engineers to develop the Oculus virtual reality platform. No release date has been announced for the commercial release. To stay updated on Oculus’ progress, please visit oculusvr.com.

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]]>https://www.oculus.com/press/oculus-vr-raises-75m-in-series-b-to-make-virtual-reality-a-commercial-reality/feed/0John Carmack Joins Oculus VR as Chief Technology Officerhttps://www.oculus.com/press/john-carmack-joins-oculus-vr-as-chief-technology-officer/
https://www.oculus.com/press/john-carmack-joins-oculus-vr-as-chief-technology-officer/#commentsWed, 07 Aug 2013 14:00:38 +0000http://www.oculus.com/?post_type=press&p=4221IRVINE, CALIFORNIA (August 7, 2013) – Oculus VR, Inc., developer of the highly anticipated Oculus Rift, today announced that legendary programmer John Carmack has joined the Oculus team as Chief Technology Officer (CTO) and will lead development from their new office in Dallas, TX. An industry visionary and renowned technical genius, Carmack will lend his unique engineering expertise to the development of the Oculus VR platform.

“The dream of VR has been simmering in the background for decades, but now, the people and technologies are finally aligning to allow it to reach the potential we imagined.” said John Carmack, CTO of Oculus and co-founder of id Software. “I’m extremely excited to make a mark in what I truly believe will be a transformative technology.”

“To build the best virtual reality experience, we’re putting together a team of the brightest minds, and John Carmack is at the top of the list. It’s a true honor,” said Brendan Iribe, co-founder and CEO, Oculus. “A pioneer of 2D, 3D, and now VR, John continues to define the future of computer graphics and gaming. We share John’s commitment to providing the world with open platforms that inspire innovation and creation.”

An advocate of open source software, Carmack is a world-renowned luminary who has altered the landscape of multiple industries. From programming several of the most groundbreaking video games, to trail-blazing 3D engine licensing, Carmack’s work has been leveraged in industry-defining franchises such as Wolfenstein, Doom, Quake, Half-Life, Call of Duty® and Medal of Honor. He has pioneered adoption of many of the techniques used in real time computer graphics today, including light mapping, megatexturing, raycasting, and binary space partitioning. Carmack was inducted into the Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences’ Hall of Fame in 2001, awarded two Emmy® awards for his work in graphics technology in 2006 and 2007, and received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the GDC in 2010.

“I am thrilled to work with John on building the Metaverse.” said Palmer Luckey, founder, Oculus. “John’s early experiments with the Rift put Oculus on the map and helped create an amazing amount of momentum around virtual reality. His technical genius and passion for solving hard problems makes him the ideal CTO.”

The Oculus Rift is a virtual reality headset that allows users to step into the game. It provides an immersive, stereoscopic 3D experience with a huge field of view—110 degrees diagonally—and overcomes latency challenges. Development kits for the Oculus Rift, which game developers can use to create Oculus-ready applications and interactive content, began shipping in March 2013. No date has been announced yet for the consumer version. To stay updated on Oculus’ progress, please visit www.oculus.com.

Oculus is currently recruiting the world-class engineers to help develop the Oculus virtual reality platform. Please check the Oculus career page for information regarding open positions in Irvine, CA and Dallas, TX: http://www.oculus.com/careers/.

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About Oculus VR, Inc.

Oculus VR, Inc. is revolutionizing the way people experience video games. The company’s first product, the highly anticipated Oculus Rift, is a virtual reality headset that allows players to step inside the game. It provides an immersive, stereoscopic 3D experience with an ultra-wide field of view and super low latency head tracking. For more information, visit: www.oculus.com.

IRVINE, CALIFORNIA (June 19, 2013) –Oculus VR, Inc., developer of the highly anticipated Oculus Rift, today announced that it has closed $16 million in Series A funding. The round was co-led by Spark Capital and Matrix Partners. Santo Politi, founder and general partner at Spark, and Antonio Rodriguez, serial entrepreneur and general partner at Matrix, have joined the company’s board of directors. Founders Fund as well as Formation 8 also participated in the round. The funds will be used to accelerate the development of virtual reality hardware, software and services, ultimately creating a full virtual reality platform for consumers.

“Oculus began with a single mission: to put players inside the game,” said Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus VR and inventor of the Oculus Rift. “This investment allows us to deliver immersive and affordable virtual reality to players everywhere.”

The Oculus Rift is a virtual reality headset that provides an immersive, stereoscopic 3D experience with a huge field of view—110 degrees diagonally—and that overcomes latency challenges. A prototype of the Oculus Rift first appeared at E3 2012, immediately earning praise from the industry. Just one year later, Oculus has manufactured and successfully shipped the Rift development kits purchased in its Kickstarter campaign, allowing game developers across the globe to create Oculus-ready applications and interactive content.

“With the recent console announcements and the advent of stronger mobile technology, we’re watching the video game industry keenly,” said Mr. Politi. “In our estimation, Oculus is one of the only companies in the space with something completely new and disruptive. They have the right team, capital and vision to take virtual reality beyond console gaming and into everyday computing.”

“In this business, there are only a few rare companies that can so perfectly embody the future you read about in science fiction novels,” said Mr. Rodriguez. “What Palmer, Brendan and the team are building at Oculus so closely matches the Metaverse, we had to be part of it. Working with them to get this platform to market at scale will be enormously exciting.”

Founded in 2005, Spark Capital’s track record of backing extraordinary, forward-thinking ventures, including Twitter and Tumblr, has served as a barometer for innovation in the tech industry. Matrix Partners’ achievements span decades and include early investments in some of the world’s most successful technology companies, such as Apple, SanDisk and many others.

“What better way to mark our first anniversary than to announce our next phase of growth,” said Brendan Iribe, CEO of Oculus VR. “There are still many challenging problems to solve, but with the support of these great investment partners, and our passionate community, we will continue to hire the brightest minds and stay laser focused on delivering the very best virtual reality platform possible.”

Oculus VR previously raised over $2.4 million through its Kickstarter campaign – almost 10 times its fundraising goal – and developers are actively supporting the headset. No release date has been set for commercial release. To stay updated on Oculus’ progress, please visit www.oculus.com.

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About Matrix Partners

Matrix Partners is a premier venture capital firm that has generated outstanding returns for more than three decades. By focusing on early-stage investments and emphasizing long-term relationships with entrepreneurs, the firm has delivered several of the industry’s top performing funds of all time. Matrix Partners has offices in Cambridge and Waltham, MA; Palo Alto, CA; Mumbai, India; and Beijing and Shanghai, China. Matrix Partners has invested in several game-changing, industry-leading businesses such as Apple Computer, Aruba, HubSpot, JBoss, Netezza, Phone.com, Polyvore, Starent Networks, Tivoli Systems, Veritas, Zendesk, and Zong. www.matrixpartners.com

About Spark Capital

Founded in 2005, Spark Capital is a tight-knit group of partners managing approximately $1.5 billion across four funds. Spark invests across a number of key market segments including: advertising & monetization, commerce & services, cloud & infrastructure, social, mobile and content. Spark’s portfolio includes companies such as Twitter, Tumblr, Foursquare, AdMeld, OMGPOP, ThePlatform and 5Min. The Spark team has previously backed notable companies such as Akamai Technologies, Qtera, Aether Systems and Novatel Wireless. www.sparkcapital.com

About Oculus VR, Inc.

Oculus VR, Inc. is revolutionizing the way people experience video games. The company’s first product, the highly anticipated Oculus Rift, is a virtual reality headset that allows players to step inside the game. It provides an immersive, stereoscopic 3D experience with an ultra-wide field of view and super low latency head tracking. For more information, visit: www.oculus.com

]]>https://www.oculus.com/press/oculus-vr-closes-16m-series-a-to-bring-consumer-virtual-reality-platform-to-market/feed/0Custom UDK to Ship with All Oculus Rift Developer Kitshttps://www.oculus.com/press/custom-udk-to-ship-with-all-oculus-rift-developer-kits/
https://www.oculus.com/press/custom-udk-to-ship-with-all-oculus-rift-developer-kits/#commentsMon, 25 Mar 2013 14:30:23 +0000https://www.oculus.com/?post_type=press&p=3043Epic Games and Oculus VR Partner to Help Unreal Engine Developers Build the Future of Games

IRVINE, CALIFORNIA (March 25, 2013) – Oculus VR, Inc., developer of the highly anticipated Oculus Rift, announced that it will provide a custom, Oculus-ready version of Epic Games’ Unreal Development Kit (UDK) to every developer who has purchased the Oculus Rift development kit. In addition, all Unreal Engine 3 full source licensees will receive the Oculus – UE3 integration code free of charge. These new offerings mark Oculus’ entry into Epic’s premier UE3 Integrated Partners Program (IPP). The deepened partnership between the two companies is designed to support all Unreal Engine developers wanting to take their games to a completely new level of immersion.

“Developers have used Unreal Engine technology to create some of the most memorable games in history,” said Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of Epic Games. “We view virtual reality as a massive technological step forward, and are arming all developers with the tools to create game experiences that represent the future. Our partnership with Oculus will bring the highest quality experiences to virtual reality games.”

Epic Games and Oculus have been collaborating since the launch of Oculus’ Kickstarter campaign to improve and optimize the integration with UE3. The custom Oculus-ready version of UDK, the free edition of UE3, will include the Epic Citadel tech demo, a medieval castle and village which developers can explore in virtual reality with the Rift.

“We’ve said from the start that independent developers were as important to us as AAA developers,” said Brendan Iribe, CEO of Oculus. “The Unreal Engine and UDK have proven time and again that they are premiere engines for all game developers. Our relationship with Epic shows our commitment to give every developer the chance to create the next amazing game experience.”

The Oculus Rift is a virtual reality headset that allows users to step into the game. It provides an immersive, stereoscopic 3D experience with a huge field of view—110 degrees diagonally—and overcomes the latency problems that have plagued previous VR gaming headsets, where movement in the game lags behind movement of the player’s head. Developer kits for the Oculus Rift, which game developers can use to create Oculus-ready VR applications and interactive content, will begin shipping to backers at the end of March 2013.

The custom, Oculus-ready version of UDK will be available from the Oculus Developer Center the first week of April.

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About Unreal Engine

Developed by Epic Games, the award-winning Unreal Engine is known for its cutting-edge graphics technology, world-class toolset and scalability across PC, console and mobile platforms. Unreal Engine 3 (UE3) is designed to accelerate developers’ productivity for creating high-quality games, applications, training simulations, visualizations, digital films and animated entertainment. Powering hundreds of games and integrated with two dozen leading middleware technologies, UE3 holds more than 20 technology awards, including eight Game Developer Front Line Awards and five Develop Industry Excellence Awards. The Unreal Engine also owns a seat in the Front Line Awards Hall of Fame. Unreal Engine 4 (UE4), winner of multiple Best of E3 2012 awards, offers unprecedented graphical capabilities and workflow improvements that provide unparalleled accessibility for developers building the next generation of games and applications. For more information, visit http://www.unrealengine.com/ and follow @UnrealEngine.

About Oculus VR, Inc.

Oculus VR, Inc. is revolutionizing the way people experience video games. The company’s first product, the highly anticipated Oculus Rift, is a virtual reality headset that allows players to step inside the game. It provides an immersive, stereoscopic 3D experience with an ultra-wide field of view and super low latency head tracking. For more information, visit: www.oculus.com.

IRVINE, CALIFORNIA (March 22, 2013) – Oculus VR, Inc., creators of the highly anticipated Oculus Rift, announced that it has partnered with Unity Technologies, developer of the Unity multi-platform engine and development tools, to provide every Rift developer with a four-month Unity Pro trial license, free of charge. The extended trial is designed to let Rift developers leverage Unity Pro to develop incredibly rich and immersive virtual reality gaming and interactive experiences.

“Unity provides game developers with amazing tools that bring joy to the process of creating games, while also lowering the financial and time barriers of high-end production,” said David Helgason, CEO and co-founder, Unity Technologies. “The next generation of video games will not only be found on consoles, but also on PCs, mobile devices and in the cloud though none of these platforms offer the ability to step into the experience. That is where the Oculus Rift comes in. We’re partnering with Oculus to give Unity developers the ability to create the most immersive gaming experiences yet.”

The Oculus Rift development kit, combined with a four-month Unity Pro trial license, will give developers the time, the integration code, the intuitive toolset and access to thousands of ready-made assets from the Unity Asset Store to create VR games and interactive content across a range of platforms. The extended Unity Pro trial license is available to any developer who purchases an Oculus Rift development kit.

“The Unity engine’s innovative design, ease of use, and flexibility have helped game developers of all skill levels develop some of the most unique games on the market,” said Brendan Iribe, CEO of Oculus. “Like Unity, we share the desire to help developers create games unlike any other, and we look forward to seeing our combined technologies transformed into virtual reality.”

The Oculus Rift is a virtual reality headset that allows users to step into the game. It provides an immersive, stereoscopic 3D experience with a huge field of view—110 degrees diagonally—and overcomes the latency problems that have plagued previous VR gaming headsets, where movement in the game lags behind movement of the player’s head. Development kits for the Oculus Rift, which game developers can use to create Oculus-ready VR applications and interactive content, will begin shipping to backers at the end of March 2013.

The Unity Pro extended trial license will be available through the Oculus Developer Center starting in April.

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About Unity Technologies

Unity Technologies is the creator of Unity, a flexible and high-performance development platform used to make creative and intelligent interactive 3D and 2D experiences. The “author once, deploy everywhere” capability enables developers to deploy to all of the most important platforms. Unity Technologies boasts a thriving community of 1.5 million developers including large publishers, indie studios, students and hobbyists. To remain at the forefront of innovation, Unity Technologies tirelessly re-invests in its award-winning 3D development tools and its democratization initiatives, such as the Asset Store digital marketplace and Union game distribution service. Unity Technologies is headquartered in San Francisco and has offices in Canada, China, Colombia, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Japan, Korea, Lithuania, Singapore, Sweden, Ukraine, and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit: http://unity3d.com.

About Oculus VR, Inc.

Oculus VR, Inc. is revolutionizing the way people experience video games. The company’s first product, the highly anticipated Oculus Rift, is a virtual reality headset that allows players to step inside the game. It provides an immersive, stereoscopic 3D experience with an ultra-wide field of view and super low latency head tracking. For more information, visit: www.oculus.com.

IRVINE, CALIFORNIA (January 23, 2013) – Virtual reality for video games received another boost as Oculus VR, Inc. (Oculus), a developer of virtual reality technology, announced that Laird M. Malamed has joined the company as chief operating officer. Prior to joining Oculus, Malamed served as the senior vice president and head of development at Activision Blizzard where he oversaw the production on blockbuster properties such as Guitar Hero®, Call of Duty® and Skylanders, and earned a reputation for successfully delivering high-quality consumer gaming hardware and AAA software into the hands of gamers.

“The opportunity to join Oculus and build the future of virtual reality gaming was too exciting to pass up,” said Laird Malamed, COO of Oculus. “I look forward to being part of the team, creating a completely new medium for the video game industry and its many potential applications for the future.”

Malamed earned a joint BS degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering and Film & Media Studies. He attended the Graduate School of Cinematic Arts at University of Southern California, where he is currently an adjunct professor in the Interactive Media Division.

“With 18 years in the video game industry, Laird brings a wealth of expertise in producing some of the industry’s biggest and most successful brands and shipping them to market. Laird’s insights will be instrumental in helping Oculus through its accelerated growth as we approach the launch of the Oculus Rift. We are thrilled to have him,” said Brendan Iribe, CEO of Oculus.

The Oculus Rift is a virtual reality headset that allows users to step into the game. It provides an immersive, stereoscopic 3-D experience with a huge field of view—110 degrees diagonally—and overcomes the latency problems that have plagued previous VR gaming headsets, where movement in the game lags behind movement of the player’s head. Developer kits for the Oculus Rift, which game developers can use to create Oculus-ready games and interactive content, will be available in Q1 2013.

About Oculus VR, Inc

Oculus VR, Inc. is a technology company revolutionizing the way people experience video games. The company’s first product, the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset designed for immersive gaming, is currently in development. Developer kits for the Oculus Rift are set to ship in March 2013. The company was founded by Palmer Luckey along with veterans of RedOctane, developers of the acclaimed Guitar Hero series; Scaleform, the leading user interface middleware in the game industry; and Gaikai, the cloud gaming start-up recently acquired by Sony.

]]>https://www.oculus.com/press/oculus-vr-appoints-activision-svp-laird-malamed-as-chief-operating-officer/feed/0Oculus VR™ to Bring Virtual Reality to South Koreahttps://www.oculus.com/press/oculus-to-bring-virtual-reality-to-south-korea/
https://www.oculus.com/press/oculus-to-bring-virtual-reality-to-south-korea/#commentsThu, 23 Aug 2012 04:07:52 +0000http://www.oculus.com/?post_type=press&p=1489Former Autodesk Gameware and Scaleform executive to head up Korean business operations

Seoul, South Korea – August 22, 2012 – The newfound momentum behind virtual reality crossed the Pacific today as Oculus VR™, a developer of virtual reality technology, announced that it had hired Dillon Seo to direct its business operations in South Korea. Seo, a 7-year industry veteran and former Business Director for Scaleform, will lead the launch of the Oculus VR™ Korea office and spearhead collaboration with Korean game studios that are developing innovative video game experiences with the company’s new virtual reality headset, the Oculus Rift.

“South Korea is home to some of the world’s most talented game developers who are consistently innovating across genres,” said Brendan Iribe, CEO at Oculus VR™. “Dillon, along with our new team based in Seoul, will allow Oculus VR™ to collaborate closely with top Korean developers to create completely new and totally immersive virtual reality experiences with the Oculus Rift. I’m thrilled to see what they make.”

Seo is leaving his executive sales position at Autodesk, where he led sales and marketing efforts for Autodesk Gameware solutions, to head up the new Oculus VR™ Korea office.

“I could not be more excited to join the Oculus VR™ team,” said Dillon Seo. “Playing with the Oculus Rift has changed the way I think about gaming forever. I’m confident gamers and developers around the world will feel the same way when they try it for themselves. Opening an office here in Seoul means that South Korean game studios will always have fully localized technical support and a close partner in the development of amazing new virtual reality video games using Oculus VR™ technology.”

To share and discuss information about the Oculus Rift, Seo and the Oculus VR™ Korea team have set up a Naver Café page at: cafe.naver.com/oculusvr.

The Oculus Rift is a virtual reality headset that allows users to step into game. It produces a stereoscopic 3-D experience with a huge field of vision—110 degrees diagonally—and overcomes the latency problems that have plagued previous VR gaming headsets, where movement in the game lags movement of the head.

Oculus VR™ recently launched a Kickstarter campaign to speed the distribution of early development kits to game developers around the world. More information on the Oculus Rift Kickstarter campaign can be found here: http://www.oculus.com/kickstarter

Photo courtesy of Inven Communications

About Oculus VR, Inc
Oculus VR™ is a technology company revolutionizing the way people experience video games. The company’s first product, the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, is currently in development and is set to launch in 2013. The company was founded by Palmer Luckey and veterans of RedOctane, developers of the acclaimed Guitar Hero series, Scaleform, the #1 user interface software in the gaming, and Gaikai, the cloud gaming company. For more information on the Oculus Rift, visit: http://www.oculus.com/kickstarter or email: rift@oculusvr.com.

]]>https://www.oculus.com/press/oculus-to-bring-virtual-reality-to-south-korea/feed/0Former Gaikai and Scaleform Officer, Brendan Iribe, Joins Oculus VR™ as CEOhttps://www.oculus.com/press/former-gaikai-and-scaleform-officer-brendan-iribe-joins-oculus-as-ceo/
https://www.oculus.com/press/former-gaikai-and-scaleform-officer-brendan-iribe-joins-oculus-as-ceo/#commentsTue, 14 Aug 2012 14:00:33 +0000http://www.oculus.com/?post_type=press&p=1496Los Angeles – August 14, 2012 – On the heels of its highly successful Kickstarter launch, Oculus VR™, a developer of virtual reality (VR) technology, announced that the former Gaikai chief product officer and Scaleform CEO, Brendan Iribe, has joined Oculus VR™ as CEO. Other key hires include Michael Antonov and Jack McCauley, who join Oculus as chief software architect and vice president of engineering, respectively.

“The success of our Kickstarter campaign has been overwhelming and a bit humbling, but now it’s time to deliver on the promise,” said Palmer Luckey, founder of Oculus. “We’ve done the R&D and have blown people away with our prototypes. These hires, all of whom have many years of experience developing technology for video games, will ensure that we first deliver rock-solid dev kits, then a consumer product that takes video games to a completely new level of immersion.”

In 2004, Brendan Iribe and Michael Antonov co-founded Scaleform, a developer of UI middleware for video games. Scaleform was eventually acquired by Autodesk in March of 2011, but not before seeing its award-winning software development kit (SDK) included in over 1000 high end video games. After overseeing the transition to Autodesk, Brendan moved on to Gaikai as the chief product officer leading the user experience and product development teams. He now lends his deep industry experience and knowledge of gaming technology to Oculus VR™ and its product, the Oculus Rift.

“For years we’ve talked about virtual reality, and how amazing it would be to actually play within a game, rather than just watch it happen in front of you on a screen,” said Brendan Iribe. “As a serial entrepreneur, I thrive in start-up environments, and Oculus VR™ is as exciting and disruptive as they come. The core technology is already there. Now it’s up to the growing team at Oculus VR™ to get it into the hands of both developers and gamers everywhere.”

Joining Brendan are two other veterans of the game technology space. Michael Antonov was CTO at Scaleform and software architect at Autodesk, and now comes on board as chief software architect, responsible for the Oculus SDK. Jack McCauley comes to Oculus VR™ from R0R3 Devices, a product engineering company, where he led the development and manufacturing of numerous popular video game peripherals including Activision’s highly acclaimed guitar and drum controllers, which shipped millions of units worldwide.

In the coming days, the team will be heading to multiple game shows in Europe, the United States, and South Korea. Any developer or publisher interested in speaking with Oculus VR™ should email rift@oculusvr.com. For more information, visit: www.oculus.com

About Oculus VR, Inc

Oculus VR™ is a technology company revolutionizing the way people experience video games. The company’s first product, the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, is currently in development and is set to launch in 2013. The company was founded by Palmer Luckey and veterans of RedOctane, developers of the acclaimed Guitar Hero series, Scaleform, the #1 user interface software in the gaming, and Gaikai, the cloud gaming company. For more information on the Oculus Rift, visit: http://kck.st/MLCaEC or email: rift@oculusvr.com.

Los Angeles – August 1, 2012 – The long-awaited goal of virtual reality (VR) for video games came a step closer today as Oculus VR™, a developer of virtual reality technology, launched a Kickstarter campaign for its new headset—the “Oculus Rift.” The campaign aims to speed the distribution of early development kits to game developers and enthusiasts around the world. People can join the initiative by visiting the Kickstarter page at http://kck.st/MLCaEC.

Oculus VR™, led by a number of successful video game veterans and virtual reality visionaries, has set the funding goal at $250,000 USD. A contribution of $300 or more gets the donor an Oculus Rift VR headset dev kit, access to the software development kit (SDK) and a copy of Doom 3 BFG, which has already been integrated with the headset. The package enables developers not only to experience VR gaming for the first time, but to easily integrate the Oculus Rift with their own games or 3D applications.

“All of us at Oculus VR™ are excited to bring truly immersive VR to people who love video games like we do,” said Palmer Luckey, Founder of Oculus. “Virtual reality has been the long sought after Holy Grail, which most people only ever dreamed of… until now. The Oculus Rift is a true game changer that will help make VR the standard for gameplay in the very near future.”

The Oculus Rift allows players to step into game. It produces a stereoscopic 3D experience with a huge field of view—110 degrees diagonally—so you don’t see the screen. It also overcomes the resolution and latency problems that have plagued previous VR headsets, where movement in the game lags behind movement of the head.

“We’ve already gotten great feedback from the press and buy-in from major game developers including id Software, Epic, Unity and Valve,” Luckey said. “We know the gaming community will be as excited as we all are when they get their hands on it.”

“I’m a believer,” said Cliff Bleszinski, design director at Epic Games. “We’re extremely excited here at Epic Games to get the Unreal Engine integrated with the Oculus Rift!”

“I think this will be the coolest way to experience games in the future. It will simply be that big,” offered David Helgason, CEO of Unity.

“It looks incredibly exciting. If anybody’s going to tackle this set of hard problems, we think that Palmer’s going to do it. So we’d strongly encourage gamers to support this Kickstarter,” said Gabe Newell, president and owner of Valve.

The developer kits acquired through Kickstarter will include access to the Oculus Developer Center, a community for Oculus Rift developers. The Oculus Rift SDK will include code, samples, and documentation to facilitate integration with any new or existing games, initially on PCs and mobiles, with consoles to follow.

Oculus VR™ will be showcasing the Oculus Rift at a number of upcoming tradeshows, including Quakecon, Siggraph, GDC Europe, gamescom and Unite.

About Oculus VR, Inc

Oculus VR™ is a technology company revolutionizing the way people experience video games. The company’s first product, the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, is currently in development and is set to launch in 2013. The company was founded by Palmer Luckey and veterans of RedOctane, developers of the acclaimed Guitar Hero series, Scaleform, the #1 user interface software in the gaming, and Gaikai, the cloud gaming company. For more information on the Oculus Rift, visit: http://kck.st/MLCaEC or email: rift@oculusvr.com.